Star Citizen 3.8.0 Quick Tips
Welcome to some Tips, essential tools, Meta advice for Ship Gear & Loadouts, where to find them, Workarounds for Problems Star Citizen Alpha 3.8.0.
Meta – I’ll give you a very quick meta rundown for 3.8.0 currently, if you have no idea then this will really help, some people may disagree with some of my choices BUT at that stage you probably have a playstyle, specific needs or don’t need to know any of the meta info. You can see where these items are in the links below. Really Weapons and Shields are the only things that you’ll want to consider to start with anyway (I don’t see much actual tangible differences to gameplay with Coolers & Power Plants).
There are a couple of tools online HardPoint.io & also Erkul calculator these give you all the stats and loadouts of any ship and whatever you want to fit them with in great detail something that is regularly updated too.
THERE is also from Execution by Human Germ a list of items their stats and where to get them in 3.8.0 this is an essential resource IMO, that one will also give you all the info you need to make decisions on what to trade and where.
Gimballed weapons are where it is at so you want to get the varipuck gimbal (which means you drop a weapon size from the hardpoint) at the moment people seem to be using for:
- S1 Yellow Jackets & Bulldogs
- S2 Mass Drivers – The Strifes & Sledges (Port Olisar)
- S3 Tarantula
For Shields the FR66 / 76 & 86 are recommended for S1, 2 and 3 respectively.
With the S1 shields if you have 2 or more slots then instead you want to have a Guardian & Mirage to give you a good mix of defense and shield regen.
Quantum Drives are a bit more complex and it depends on if you are doing short jumps regularly or longer jumps. Those tools will help you make an informed decision as you are balancing fuel consumption vs speed & acceleration. Ships with a fast Max Speed on the QT might not be the best choice in all situations as they are fuel hungry AND they have to consider acceleration too.
General / Common Fixes
Delete Your User Folder OR AT LEAST the Shaders Folder there.
Install the Latest Graphics Card Drivers for your GFX… old drivers are the number 1 cause of crashes in game.
Mission
The Claim Jumpers Mission is supposed to be fixed in the next 3.8.x patch BUT currently it can bug out, if you see 2 beacon icons for the mission on the Starmap, untrack the mission and then abandon it.
Hurston bunker missions and Clear Security Post Kareah missions are bugged.
Some Bounty Missions can be chained after you clear them, take them again and the enemies will just respawn.
Always Accept the Calls to Arms Mission when you log in, you’ll get monies for killing pirates that are not part of missions, if you complete a mission that some spawned pirates are part of, those pirates will now count towards the Calls to Arms Mission.
Service Beacons typically won’t appear if you have a crime rating.
If you cannot open or interact with your mobiGlas, inspect an item, change weapon OR sit in a chair to hopefully solve.
Double Left / Right Click to Zoom in or out on the Starmap, keep your cursor on an object to not have it disappear.
Ships
Landing Pads maybe Broken for Rearm, Repair & Refueling – Either hover above the pad and request services OR land with landing gear up.
R Cycles your Gimbal Mode Fixed, Auto-gimbal, manual gimbal. If your aim or cursor isn’t doing what you want to do, try cycling modes.
If a mission bugs out, untrack it before you abandon it, otherwise it can stay on your HUD.
If the ASOP terminal Bugs out and you cannot get your ship, move to another terminal and reclaim the ship. If that doesn’t work you may need to either relog OR make a Service Beacon/Get someone to transport you to another Station / Ship Spawn Location.
If you are stuck in your Seat try pressing Y, then Space and if those don’t work Backspace will self destruct / force respawn you.
If you lose ship items/weapons after a DC or relog then try moving them to another ship and then reclaim the original ship before moving them back.
Press Right Shift to Lock your ships Pitch/Roll – Great for Taking off and Landing
Renting an Arrow or Avenger Titan is a very good choice if you want to do Bounty Missions from a Starter Ship.
If you get out of your ships chair while in QT security won’t stop you.
Cargo can disappear in your hold BUT normally it’s still there.
If you spawn your ship and forget what hangar it’s in, just go back to the ASOP terminal, it will list where it is.
FPS
Heavy Armor or the BackPack are the only armor that is really “consistently” functional or has use atm.
FPS Weapons & Mining Tool sometimes doesn’t fire, set a key to inspect your weapon [Settings – Keybindings – Advanced – On Foot-All & “Inspect Item”], Inspecting the item fixes this.
Stowing your FPS weapon by holding R or interacting Stow will prevent it from being lost.
If you do randomly lose a weapon or can’t pull it back out, try unequipping/reequipping it if it’s still showing there.
Dealing Damage to Ship Doors / Ramps will allow their doors to be open with interactions, some seem to just to open themselves. Some NPC ships will have some doors that are just openable without damage anyway.
For Trade if you have a Caterpillar GREAT, but Renting a Cutlass or Freelancer can allow you to make a load of aUEC from even quick titanium & diamond runs. Even Scrap & Agricultural supplies between PO & GrimHex can make you a good amount of money relatively safely.
If you are doing VERY valuable trade routes in the Caterpillar or any super valuable cargo load, after I land on a pad I log out. Then log on and trade the cargo while the ship is in storage and isn’t a “sitting duck for rammers” – Avoid Landing on Low Grav Moons!